The Aryan Couple (England, 2004)


Figure 1.--There is a long sequence of German Jews, families with children, being loaded onto the cattle cars that will transport them to the gas chambers. We see a little Jewish boy with his yellow star of David sewn on his jacket.

"The Aryan Couple" is a British film, directed by John Daly and set in Nazi occupied Hungary in 1944. It tells the story or a married Jewish couple (they masquerade as Aryans) who are the servants of a wealthy Jewish industrialist (played by Martin Landau). The attractive couple (Hans and Ingrid Vassman, played by Kenny Doughty and Caroline Carver) are about to have their first child, a little girl whom we glimpse only at the very end of the film. The somewhat unconvincing story has the dignified industrialist, Joseph Krautzenberg, who lives in a palce stocked with the finest old masters, bargaining with the Nazis for safe passage to Palestine in exchange for all his wealth (including the paintings). In the course of the story Hans and Ingrid reveal to their employers that they are Jews in disguise, and there is great tension about the escape, not only of the patriarch and his wife, but also of Hans and Ingrid who are finally discovered to be Jewish by the Nazi high command among whom Heinrich Himmler (Danny Webb) and Adolf Eichman (Steven Macintosh) are particularly brutish and cruel. The film ends somewhat sentimentally by both the wealthy couple and his entire family as well as Hans and Ingrid escaping across the Swiss border and being happily reunited.

Filmology

"The Aryan Couple" is a British film, directed by John Daly and set in Nazi occupied Hungary in 1944.

Setting

The film opens grimly with reminiscences of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp, and some actual historical photographs of the skeletal victims. At one point we see the actual photo of four teenage Jewish boys who were victims at Auschwitz. Then there is a long sequence of German Jews, families with children, being loaded onto the cattle cars that will transport them to the gas chambers.

Cast

The main characters are a couple, Hans and Ingrid Vassman, played by Kenny Doughty and Caroline Carver. Two of the main characters in the Holocaust, Heinrich Himmler (Danny Webb) and Adolf Eichman (Steven Macintosh), featute in the film.


Figure 2.-- In a scene with Hans and Ingrid shopping in the village near the Krautzenberg palace where they work we see in the background a Hungarian father and son walking past. The boy wears a rust-colored blouse with a sailor-style rectangular collar on the back of his shoulders. The blouse exposes part of his white shirt underneath. He wears short trousers, tan long stockings, and a flat cap typical of the style of boys' clothes in the Eastern Europe during the 1940s.

Plot

It tells the story or a married Jewish couple (they masquerade as Aryans) who are the servants of a wealthy Jewish industrialist (played by Martin Landau). An attractive couple (Hans and Ingrid Vassman) are about to have their first child, a little girl whom we glimpse only at the very end of the film. The somewhat unconvincing story has the dignified industrialist, Joseph Krautzenberg, who lives in a palce stocked with the finest old masters, bargaining with the Nazis for safe passage to Palestine in exchange for all his wealth (including the paintings). In the course of the story Hans and Ingrid reveal to their employers that they are Jews in disguise, and there is great tension about the escape, not only of the patriarch and his wife, but also of Hans and Ingrid who are finally discovered to be Jewish by the Nazi high command among whom Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichman are pictured as particularly brutish and cruel. The film ends somewhat sentimentally by both the wealthy couple and his entire family as well as Hans and Ingrid escaping across the Swiss border and being happily reunited.

Costuming

We see a little Jewish boy with his yellow star of David sewn on his jacket. In a scene with Hans and Ingrid shopping in the village near the Krautzenberg palace where they work we see in the background a Hungarian father and son walking past. The boy wears a rust-colored blouse with a sailor-style rectangular collar on the back of his shoulders. The blouse exposes part of his white shirt underneath. He wears short trousers, tan long stockings, and a flat cap typical of the style of boys' clothes in the Eastern Europe during the 1940s.







HBC







Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main "Am-Az" movie page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Theatricals]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]




Created: 3:23 AM 3/22/2007
Last updated: 3:24 AM 3/22/2007